Beijing’s new addition to its airport infrastructure, Terminal 3, has passed all its inspections and is now ready for operation. However it isn’t expected to start trial operation until Feb 29.
This additional terminal increases Beijing’s airport pax capacity from a theoretical 35 million (though last year its throughput was 48.6 million) to somewhere between 70-85 million. The exact figure is somewhat vague with disparity between report 2015 capacity figures in China Daily, the CAAC and the developers Foster & Partners. Either way, its capacity should firmly place Beijing within the top 5 busiest airports in the world.
The airport, according to China Daily, will handle take-offs and landings at approx 30 second intervals.
The overall floorspace is a massive 1 million m2 but has been designed under a single roof. To help passengers distinguish between different sections, skylights cast different shades of yellow and red light across the walls – a subtle but innovative navigational aid.
In preparation for the new terminal and really amping up retail sales, the airport has recently released plans to reduce the prices of 8,600 items sold in the terminals to levels comparable with downtown department stores or supermarkets. In the last few months they have already reduced prices of around 100 items including alcohol, tobacco, clothes & cosmetics, by up to 40% in an attempt to reduce the impression that the airport was a tourist trap and to increase retail sales. According to Qian Liqin, Chairman of the Capital Airport Commercial & Trading, this move doubled retail sales in November.
Currently Beijing earns less than 40% of its revenue from retail, compared to over 60% for airports like Singapore and Frankfurt. Chinese airports generated less than 2% of the world’s airport retail expenditure yet they account for more than 10% of the worlwide airline passengers. Whilst pricing is a small component of improving airport retail sales, it is a necessary precursor. Unless prices are seen to be reasonable, no amount of other retail techniques will help retail sales. With the huge development cost of the new terminal, clearly the airport operators needed to start doing something.
Chinese airport operators also tend to operate their own outlets, which has never helped in terms of maximising sales. However there are now plans to lease out shops to specialised retailers and duty free operators. This should also assist in getting a more efficiently run retail area because with 45,200 m2 of new retail being added with Terminal 3, they will certainly have a lot of retail space to fill.
Foster & Partners
